Thursday, January 11, 2018

Bath
bombs! You must have heard about them before. It seems everyone is
talking about them. For a show I did this past weekend, I made bath
bombs instead of my usual glycerin soaps.

I
don't sell bath products by trade, but I like to make something fun,
which my children will enjoy if I don't sell them all. It's also nice to
schedule a day that doesn't involve crocheting, because when I'm
preparing for a convention, that seems like all I do.

I thought, why not give you a how to on making bath bombs and hopefully you can learn from my mistakes!

Ok, so first things, first, you need a recipe. I based my bath bombs on Hello Glow's No-Fail Coconut Oil Bath Bomb recipe, but I tweaked things here and there as I saw necessary.

Ok,
so as I see it, part of taking a bath bomb is the experience. You want a
super fizzy bath bomb with a pleasing color and scent. As a bonus, I
like to put a small plastic toy in the bombs. It's a longer lasting
memory and a random toy makes things more fun. haha!

Now don't forget, safety first! I highly recommend wearing a Particulate Respirator when mixing your ingredients and Nitrate Gloves will keep your hands from drying out. While working with all these salts, your hands will dry up.

You will also need:

A Large non-reactive bowl

One Cup measure

1/2 cup measuring cup

A small bowl

Plastic disposable fork (or spork!)

Wire Whisk

Ready to make some fun bath bombs?

Alright here we go!

1.
Combine 1/2 cup of Epsom Salts with a few 10-15 drops of food coloring
and 10-30 drops of essential oils. It will smell strongly, but don't
worry we will be mixing this with the other ingredients and it will be
diluted. Set your Epsom Salt mix aside for about 15 minutes.

Why
are you doing this? Well, The biggest reason we have failures in bath
bomb making is moisture. Moisture will make your bombs react before they
are ready. To avoid this, we pre-mix the coloring and fragrance with
the Epsom Salts. Epsom Salts will absorb moisture without making your
bombs react too early.

If you were just making bath salts, you would stop here, let the Epsom Salts dry completely and bottle up your salts.

2.
Now while you're waiting for the Epsom Salt to "cure" let's mix up the
other dry ingredients. You will mix 1 cup of Baking Soda, 1/2 cup of
Citric Acid, and 1/2 cup of Cornstarch. Mix these ingredients thoroughly
with a wire whisk.

Why
Cornstarch? Ok, you don't need cornstarch to make a bath bomb. But it
does slow down the bubbling process just a tad so you extend the
experience. It will also give the water a slightly milky appearance,
which is nice. But if you don't want cornstarch, just leave that out. No
harm at all.

3.
Mix in your Epsom Salts to the other dry ingredients. Mix well. You
will see the color transfer to the other ingredients without the
tell-tale fizz of a failure batch.

4.
Melt approximately 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in a microwave safe
measuring cup. I found 15-20 seconds was enough. The amount of coconut
oil you use will depend on the humidity in the air on the day you are
making bath bombs. I had some mixes act very dry and had to use an extra
tablespoon or two to make my bombs. Again, it really depends on the
weather.

5.
Mix the oil into your dry mix slowly adding more as needed. It's
important to mix this with your hands. The texture will feel like good
snowball making snow. It will pack and hold it's shape nicely.

6.
Taking your bath bomb molds, fill 1/2 of the mold halfway. Place the
plastic toy inside and finish packing. Use your palms to pack the molds.
(Don't be me with sore thumbs) Pack that little ball like it's the end
of the world, but be sure to keep the threads clear. If there is
ingredients trapped in the threads, it will not make a solid bath bomb.

7.
I found I was able to make a total of 10 bath bombs per batch. Once you
finish making bombs, place them in the freezer for 20 minutes. I placed
all of my bombs on a metal baking sheet with sides to keep them from
rolling all over or worst case popping open in my freezer.

8.
Remove your bombs from the freezer, warm the mold with your hands and
separate carefully. You should have a perfect little bath bomb now!

9. Oh
no! Your bathbomb broke! No problem. Let it warm up to room temperature
and crush it back up. You likely need a little more coconut oil, but it
can be repaired. Hooray on only a little waste

10.
I recommend letting your bath bombs set overnight to finish drying.
With a coconut oil based product, this isn't necessary, but I found
letting the tiny bit of moisture from the food coloring evaporate helped
produce a more solid product.

These
balls won't like heat or moisture, so I wrapped mine tightly in plastic
wrap and tied the ends with curling ribbon to keep them dry and help
keep their shape.

I
hope you try making your own surprise bath bombs. If you have any
questions, please contact me. This was so fun and my children are loving
their baths. (I'm enjoying their coconut oil baths which is keeping
itchy winter skin and fly away hair at bay.

PS!
Your bath bombs might make your bathtubs a little slippery. To clean
up, I recommend using a scrub brush and dish soap. Fill your bath with
hot to warm water, just and inch. A quick scrub around and you're
bathtub will be sparkling clean.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Due to being so busy with doll making, I missed out on the November giveaway, so instead I'm giving away two dolls to two lucky Patreon patrons.

One is an adorable Shiba Inu Puppy for 2018, the Year of the Dog. The other is a cute Moon Bun Daruma doll. Daruma dolls are a symbol of perseverance and good luck in Japan, a perfect symbol for the new year ahead!

Each of my patrons, who pledges by December 31st, will be automatically entered into this giveaway. The drawing will take place on January 1st.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

I don't talk about it often, but with Etsy's new features, I wanted to make it abundantly clear. When you order a doll from Moon's Creations, I wrap them in these cute packages for FREE.

If you let me know the doll is going to be a gift, I leave the back of the bunny tag blank, so you can write your own message, or add a specified message. Otherwise it says, "thank you."

I've always wanted my dolls to be a gift to my customers, even if it's a gift to themselves.

For orders, which are larger than my bags can hold, I will wrap the doll(s) in tan tissue paper and tie it up with some white string, topping the package with a doily and attaching a tag to the string.

Monday, November 20, 2017

Oh my goodness! My fingers have been busy! I've been making all sorts of little dolls for the holiday season.

My goal is to have them all listed by Thanksgiving. I only have one more to complete and that's because it accidentally got put into the wrong work bag.

All of the dolls featured here are currently available for purchase!

Holiday Shoppers, here are my order cut-off dates for the season if you need a doll delivered by December 24th:
United States Destination - Order by December 15 International Destinations - Order by December 1

Moon's Creations will be closing for the holidays on December 16th and
reopening in the new year. I have little children who need some
attention from their mother. Thank you for your understanding.

Friday, November 10, 2017

I'm not sure if I've posted here before, but my husband and I started a shirt shop! For years we had a pipe dream of selling our own shirt designs, but due to the size of our house and small children, our dream was just that. Until I realized I could have Zazzle do everything for me. Mwahaha!

Today you can use coupon code CLOTHINGSALE to save up to 40% on T-shirts, Leggings, and more from Zazzle! This code is only good for today.

Here are a few of my more favorite shirts we've recently added to the shop! Each of these shirts are customizable and available in a variety of shirt styles and colors!

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween!!!
We did it! We made it through a 31 Amigurumi in October series, plus a second daily series, and I didn't lose my mind... well not too much.

I had so many people hope I'd made a Gengar Moon Bun and I really wanted to, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to translate Gengar's design into a Moon Bun. Luckily I ran across this idea of a Pikachu in a Gengar costume and just had to make my own version.

This doll was reserved by one of my Patreon patrons. If you'd like to get a cut the line pass too, please consider joining us at the $3 level. I'm also giving away this sweet Edgar Allen Poe and Raven set to a random patron.

Every level from $1 and up are eligible for the giveaway. Today is your last day to join for the Poe doll, but I give a doll away every month. If you'd like to become a Patreon Patron, please click here:

Finally, today's prompt for the October Create a Day was "your choice." This was the hardest decision for me, because I'm terrible about making decisions. I waffled right up until this weekend and finally decided to make these cute Skeleton Bride and Groom Moon Buns, because not only is today Halloween, but it's also my 13 year wedding anniversary! Yay! I haven't killed my husband yet! (Haha! I kid, sometimes...)

It is because my anniversary is Halloween that I originally decided to start the 31 Amigurumi in October series. Now, that I know I can manage a month long series, I'm already making plans for next year's series as well as a few week-long series throughout the year, because it's fun!

Thank you for following along with the series this month! I hope you enjoyed the dolls as much as I enjoyed making them!

Monday, October 30, 2017

We're almost there! Can you believe it?
Tomorrow is the last dolls for this series. My wrists are going to appreciate a brief rest before I run straight into working on making dolls for the holidays and for upcoming show, MagFest!

Today's doll for the 31 Amigurumi in October is the Alola Marowak. I love that they made Marowak into a ghost-type due to the sadness of the Cubone/Marowak story. So sad!!!!

Here's a little snippet from Cubone:

It is called the Lonely Pokémon because of its tendency to keep to itself and avoid social situations, as it was apparently traumatized by the death of its mother. Cubone will often weep at night in mourning of its mother. When Cubone cries, the skull that it wears on its head vibrates and emits "a plaintive and mournful sound." On the night of a full moon, the cries are said to be especially terrible. Cubone seems to recognize its mother in the moon, and so it howls with a particular sadness.

The prompt for today's October Create a Day is "Grim Reaper" and so... here's a Grim Reaper Moon Bun!